Customer Reviews

The Minbar of Saladin: Reconstructing a Jewel of Islamic Art

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This is a very nicely produced book with a good deal of interesting information. Still, I was disappointed by the book. I expected discussion of the details of the intricate construction - based on the title. There is no detail on construction and only two small photographs of the panels in the shop. The YouTube video is more informative.

Details of the generic layout of the patterns is included, but is covered better elsewhere. Details of realizing the complex designs in wood are not covered in any depth.

I have been collecting for years books related to Islamic art and mathematics in Islamic ornaments. Some of these books are good, relatively good, and some other not good at all. One day walking on the streets of Istanbul I found a bookshop with many books on Islamic topics: art, history, and culture. Here I found "The Minbar of Saladin: Reconstructing a Jewel of Islamic Art". I started reading fragments, analyzing the pictures and I realized that I found a jewel - the book that I was dreaming of for years. I wanted to buy this book immediately, but the price was so high that I decided to check Amazon. Here I got it for roughly 1/3 of the asked price. When I got the parcel from Amazon I have spent two days of a weekend reading this book. It was incredible pleasure - very well written story of reconstruction of the minbar of Saladin, a lot of history of the Middle East written in such a way that a complete ignorant can understand what was happening when Jerusalem in those times, wonderful mathematical analysis of Islamic ornaments, and a lot of good images of Islamic ornaments (both drawings and photographs). And behind of all this there are peoples with passion and great understanding what is Islamic art and mathematics behind of it.

After reading this book I realized that I made a serious mistake. I bought the book but I was completely blind not seeing that there is also a movie with the same title. I checked YouTube and I found fragments of the movie. It is even more exciting to watch the movie and see faces of the peoples who were involved in reconstruction of the minbar of Saladin. Now I am waiting for another parcel from Amazon, this time with the movie. I guess I will have another weekend of joy watching the movie and reading again fragments of the book. In my opinion this book is one of the three best books on mathematics and Islamic ornaments I have ever seen. The two other books are "Islamic Art and Architecture ..." by Issam El-Said, and "Islamic Patterns ..." by Keith Critchlow.